Saving Part of a File (Unix Power Tools, 3rd Edition)

17.11. Saving Part of a File

While editing, you will sometimes want to save just part of your file as a separate, new file. For example, you might have entered formatting codes and text that you want to use as a header for several files.

You can combine ex line addressing (Section 20.3) with the write command, w, to save part of a file. For example, if you are in the file practice and want to save part of practice as the file newfile, you could enter:

:230,$w newfile: Saves from line 230 to end-of-file in newfile.
:.,600w newfile: Saves from the current line to line 600 in newfile.

After newfile has been created, you'll need w! instead of w.

-- LL, from Learning the vi Editor (O'Reilly, 1998)